BT Broadband [Archive] - Caithness.Org Forums

newlabeluk

16-Nov-06, 09:36

Can anyone supply me with an Exocet missile for BT call centre?

My sister is about to go off her head, been without her Broadband for nearly three weeks. She has no DSL light at all. BT predicted it was a line fault and tested the line no dice! and they closed the enquiry doesn't help there is a language barrier as she always gets India.
Back on to BT, they then said we'll send an engineer but if its not a line fault will cost you +VAT £70. Lovely Engineer rang her and said ok i'm not coming straight to the house because it may charge you, have you done XYZ, yes she says more often than i want to!

Now Sis has an idea i have my old router here she says, went Wireless 5 mths ago. Have you tried it says engineer, no just thought of it,ok you set it up i'll head to JOG exchange and call when i get there.

Sets up no joy.....engineer rings "well?" No, nothing.....ok i'll link up with my laptop from here and make my way to you (she's at Upper Gills) that's odd says he " i can't get on-line" no broadband signal.

Well i'm sorry but can you ring them with the job number and tell them it's not a line fault but an exchange problem because if i report it it'll just get send out as a line fault so she does and guess what they test the line and close the enquiry.

She is now so mad my 80year old father is talking about spending a fortune on HIE satellite connection.
Well today is Day 18 perhaps the Indian Call center will sub it off to the UK so she'll get someone that thinks in English as a first language........

Naefearjustbeer

16-Nov-06, 11:31

I feel sorry hearing about your problems. It is one of my hates calling call centres and getting shunted around with no joy but it makes me even angrier when the person I talk to is in another country and can hardly understand a word you are saying. I have cancelled insurance policys and changed companies over such things in the past. When asked why I was changing companies I told them straight sorry but you are in india, I want to deal with a company that is based entirely in the uk. I dont know what you can do about BT though are they the only option for your telephone line and connection?

badger

16-Nov-06, 11:33

I had huge problems with BT broadband a year ago and just kept demanding to go higher up until I got to Broadband complaints, who were excellent. Very helpful. Don't be put off by all this other nonsense, in the end I refused to do any more tests myself and used to start every conversation by stating just that. I also finished up with free wireless broadband equipment and got a refund on my bill for all the time I was offline. Go higher. Go to the top if you have to - I did get to the Chief Exec. at one point. Found him, eventually, on their website and made several guesses at his email address until one worked. You occasionally get lucky with the call centres but not often, partly because you never speak to the same person twice, whereas if you escalate it you get a real person with contact details. Takes a lot of time and patience though. Good luck.

Naefearjustbeer

16-Nov-06, 11:42

Yip go to the top, My mate had problems with his telephone line and went straight to the top with his complaint and it was dealt with very quickly and he recieved finacial compensation for all the problems. It did mean by passing the call centre though. This is where it gets dificult as these bosses dont make it easy to be contacted.

donnalee1994

16-Nov-06, 17:08

Hi there i used to work for bt and still have friends that work there and there in the process of making it a one stop shop so if you ring them a normal english speaking person should be able to help if they say ring the broadband helpline then tell them you are going to another company and they shud put you through to cot (customer options team) as they have to stop you from leaving bt and have a dedicated team for broadband hope this helps

dirdyweeker

16-Nov-06, 17:46

I too have had problems with BT Internet recently. Spent a fortune on phone calls (6 calls to BT in India!). My problems were all sorted the day I asked to speak to the person at the top. I was lucky it was just 2 weeks without internet but that is a long time for what is my daily "fix".

Go to the top!!

SeaviewFlowers

16-Nov-06, 17:48

Bt Broadband is a right pain in the bu**...!!! Its so slow, in fact at times i think it would be better with the old dial up connection.
I reacon that all exchanges should be updated with all the newest stuff... but i s it going to happen...? I dont think it will ever!!!!

robbain

16-Nov-06, 19:29

Orange is the same, got fed up with their call centres, especially the oversea centres, language communication problems, what ever english they are taught, is definely not queens english. I have put in a complaint to orange by letter, and will be sending them a copy of phonebill, and asking them for reimbursement of the cost of the calls to their call centres.

johno

25-Nov-06, 14:15

SeaviewFlowers

25-Nov-06, 15:39

A_Usher

25-Nov-06, 17:30

Is anyone having troubles with the BT broadband connection..?

Does it take ages for the pages to come up..? And most of the time a error message comes up "(this page cannot be displayed)"...!!!! So so annoying..!!

Anyone got the same problems..?

YES, since tuesday i have endless timouts, spoken with BT 12 times, go throught the same rubbish each time. We suffer in Dunbeath from a poor exchange, and as far as i am aware we will not be getting upgraded as their is not enough customer demand. BT has been hopeless, diagnose a line fault, then tell me there is nothing wrong with the line, etc etc.....

Engineer is booked to come out, although i dont expect much.

Andrew.

cuddlepop

25-Nov-06, 18:33

We have had problems all week so Mr Cp has been trying to navigate round there own help web page.Nothing was working so decided to phone them instead.I'm not making any racist comments but understanding what the other person was saying was a problem in itself:confused
Too cut a very long phone call short it appears the fault is with them and they will have the connection up and running properly within 24hrs.We're connected temporarily so know ones allowed to go onto home page.
We could be stuck on Caithness .org till its fixed ,cant see a problem with that:lol:

Alice in Blunderland

25-Nov-06, 19:03

I agree with the problem of call centres being abroad.I needed help with our broadband a little while ago and I am not very computer literate coupled with someone I couldnt understand..............well needless to say a friend came over next day to sort out the problem. :D

Tom Cornwall

25-Nov-06, 22:35

I had an outage prob on BT Broadband a couple of weeks ago, I spoke to an Indian gentleman, he said that there was a major prob and would take an estimated day to fix. next day I called back and someone went through a 're-setting' programme and 'bingo' I was back on before you could say "Sandy Robertson". My sone on the other hand is in the middle of similar probs with Tiscali Broadband and has been off for four days. Apart from that I've no prob with access or speeds with BT.

colmac

26-Nov-06, 00:15

We have had BT Broadband since March 06; fingers crossed, but we have had no problems with them at all. My only complaint is their price. I would hope that they would lower their fees in line with their competitors, but no such luck! We WERE with Tiscali broadband before that for two years with no problems, but when we moved it took Tiscali TWO WHOLE MONTHS to admit to us that they were unable to supply us with broadband at our newly built house. I cancelled Tiscali and BT had us up and running in less than one week of me ordering their broadband. It took me another THREE months to get Tiscali to refund me the two months they charged me for a service they couldn't provide and then they had the cheek to send me a nasty letter complaining when I cancelled my direct debit for them saying that they were unable to collect my monthly fee AFTER my membership with them was cancelled. Not a Tiscali fan!

sweetpea

26-Nov-06, 00:20

I was having a problem with a call centre a few weeks ago. I was on the phone to them, trying to keep calm but seething inside when my mobile rings and as I was waiting I answered it and it was one of these customer courtesy calls or somethig from BT!!!! I told her in no uncertain terms what I thought - that she should shut down the place I was talking to you. I laughed my socks of at the irony of the situation.

engiebenjy

26-Nov-06, 00:35

hi ,im with aol and i lost my internet connection some month s ago . i called the aol helpline and spoke to a guy in india who talked me through the entire process .in no time at all i was back on line. i have seldom met anyone so polite & helpful. and his english was pretty good [ even better than my own]
so i would,nt critisise the indian call centre to much, id rest the blame squarly on bt.

All i can say is you were lucky. I had an absolute nightmare with AOL's technical helpline, to the point that I cancelled my contract early, and paid the termination fees. Most of the time the moral of the story is that the first time you think you are being given the runaround, ask for a manger, and it soon kicks their behinds into gear. (apart from AOL who hang up on you when you do that)

luskentyre

26-Nov-06, 01:33

Is anyone having troubles with the BT broadband connection..?

Does it take ages for the pages to come up..? And most of the time a error message comes up "(this page cannot be displayed)"...!!!! So so annoying..!!

Anyone got the same problems..?

Yup, I've been having problems with my connection since last tuesday. It's only affecting some sites and it's intermittent (some times these sites work, and sometime they fail). Called BT twice now, but I might as well have spoken to the cat.

unicorn

26-Nov-06, 01:44

I am with eclipse and noticed over the last few weeks I have lost the connection a few times, but I was just putting it down to my wireless connection.

Jeid

26-Nov-06, 03:58

It's quite ironic that BT are a communications company and the biggest problem they suffer from, is lack of communication.

badger

26-Nov-06, 11:23

So glad I saw this thread as was having connections problems (again) and blaming my poor computer so had posted on the techy forum. Silly me - should have known it was BT. Miraculously cured without me doing anything, until next time.

The reason I finally went right to the top earlier this year was that BT have all these different companies now and they don't talk to each other, which for a communications corp. is pretty rich. They have computers but no link between companies so if you lose broadband and speak to them then find that actually the local line is down for some reason, the broadband people don't know this and you can waste ages messing about with settings when it's something completely unrelated. Even the engineers don't know what is going on locally. At one point I got fed up with repeating the same story to different BT companies and suggested they talk to each other to save time, but was told this wasn't allowed :eek: . Later I was told this was all going to change but somehow doubt it.

Kaishowing

26-Nov-06, 12:33

We're not on BT Broadband, but the other week our PC started acting up. After about 5 days of reformat after reformat and a fairly well exercised blue vocabulary, it was tracked down to a faulty phoneline.
My wife phoned BT up to report the fault, and while friendly, the operator on the other end was unhelpful.
Between 30 second disconnects on the PC I reported the fault via the BT website. Got a fault number and acknowledgement of the problem.
Next day an engineer turns up and fixes the problem.
So my advice would be to report any problem via the website to get a fault/complaint number...Print the page out (just in case) and keep your fingers crossed.
Sorry if this is slightly off-topic, but it's BT related!;)

newlabeluk

26-Nov-06, 17:14

:eek: Sis is still without her Internet connection but she did get the Complaints dept in the UK and they have sent out an engineer to the Exchange who then called his supervisor out when he failed to get a syncronised link to BT. they've been back & forth for about 3 days......no joy yet but living in hope:lol:

cuddlepop

26-Nov-06, 17:36

We hopefully have found a way of staying connected until it is fixed we just darent press the cross icon:eek:

cuddlepop

26-Nov-06, 21:37

Just found out that our computer doesn't have an anti virus installed as it fought with the Spyware which cost us £50.[disgust] Thought Bt internet was universal.?

Bobinovich

27-Nov-06, 00:03

CP, get yourself to the Tech Support forum - there's threads there on suitable anti-virus and anti-spyware packages there - all free to home users. :)

the nomad

27-Nov-06, 11:15

I'm with BT now and no problems. Was with Tiscali previous, they made a complete mess of moving Broadband when I moved house, they are hounding me for cash they say is overdue, even though they couldn't connect me, their call centre is not in the UK, absolutely desperate. DON'T TOUCH THEM they are useless.

j4bberw0ck

27-Nov-06, 12:50

YES, since tuesday i have endless timouts, spoken with BT 12 times, go throught the same rubbish each time. We suffer in Dunbeath from a poor exchange, and as far as i am aware we will not be getting upgraded as their is not enough customer demand. BT has been hopeless, diagnose a line fault, then tell me there is nothing wrong with the line, etc etc.....

Engineer is booked to come out, although i dont expect much.

Andrew.

Having the same (or a very similar) problem in Orkney thru BTConnect business broadband. A real pain, though slightly better today. I know of a couple of other users of BTConnect who are having similar problems here.

Thank you for the information. Regards -- J.

The Angel Of Death

27-Nov-06, 14:25

Call 0845 602 3741 then option 3 and then option 2

This takes you through to bt's new uk based technical support helpdesk for people who are fed up talking to india

A_Usher

27-Nov-06, 16:17

Well,
5 days of BT calling me, going through the same nonsense. However today they called and said the problem was that people in Dunbeath, unless living next door to the exchange will have problems due to us all living too far away from the exchange!!!!!

Despite it having worked for just over 12 months, until tuesday last. I have given up....
She also said that part of the problem was i didnt understand computers, so i guess all that study as Uni in Computing science was a waste of time!!!

newlabeluk

28-Nov-06, 12:44

well,
we've now been upgraded from a line fault through an exchange fault and become a systems fault which they say they'll have fixed in 48hours.
I'm not holding my breath:lol:
oh and Dad met his MP at the Tesco opening and he is to call him if not on-line by end of buisness Wednesday............better get the finger out BT!

johno

28-Nov-06, 21:54

All i can say is you were lucky. I had an absolute nightmare with AOL's technical helpline, to the point that I cancelled my contract early, and paid the termination fees. Most of the time the moral of the story is that the first time you think you are being given the runaround, ask for a manger, and it soon kicks their behinds into gear. (apart from AOL who hang up on you when you do that)
hi engiebenji, going by what you said i guess i must have been lucky,but i have my phone tied up with aol also & i get a great deal from them £5.95 pm
unlimited+ to 27 countrie,s, it cost me absolutely nout for the 20 min,s i was on the helpline. and this was the only time i ever had internet bother.
ps. i hope that you are all fixed up now. good luck.

:D

cuddlepop

30-Nov-06, 16:07

The link Angel Of Death gave is for business numbers.:~(
Sent another email and still awaiting phonecall.I know the weathers bad but they cant use this for an excuse forever.
Talk Talk seems a very good option just now.:Razz

The Angel Of Death

30-Nov-06, 17:00

The number isn't a business only number because i work for bt and have passed a few customers through via that number

They were set up to NOT be customer facing and had to be transfered through via a manager however the number has been passed out so everyone is using it now that doesn't want to speak to India so i think they are turning people away

If you need to use it again just ask to speak to a manager and make a complaint if they wont help you

cuddlepop

30-Nov-06, 17:23

Thank you, we will Angel of Death,
Its good to talk:lol:

engiebenjy

30-Nov-06, 18:29

The number isn't a business only number because i work for bt and have passed a few customers through via that number

Was that before you moved desks????

newlabeluk

08-Dec-06, 21:24

well at last my sister has her Broadband back......What a botch job this was!
BT check it's system decided wasn't a system fault but a exchange fault and sent an Engineer (felt sorry for him) to do a Health Check on Exchange & Line.
Well the Wee manny gets to the Exchange and almost straight away spots the problem...... someone has 'Piggybacked' on the part of the exchange that supplies her Broadband signal, he phones and says " I've found the fault, can i fix it?"
"No it's not on your work order, Health Check only"
Two more phone calls and another 24hrs before they fixed it.

Amazing......and they say " your call is Important to us" but not your Broadband:Razz

stiggy

10-Dec-06, 02:00

Wooooooo Hoooooo I am finally back on line it has only taken BT 6 weeks, 5 Engineers, 20 to 30 Phone Calls but at 9am a very nice Engineer called out again as he saw it was still outstanding and so far so good :) :)
I think they have a special light, that goes on in the call center now to tell them it is me calling, so they can see who gives in first and picks up the phone.

JAWS

10-Dec-06, 05:30

Welcome back, stiggy. Have you got any hair left?

newlabeluk

11-Dec-06, 23:30

no but she knows the engineers by name and probably how they take their coffee!:lol: Welcome back Sis.

cuddlepop

07-Jan-07, 22:18

Brought this back to front page as we have a new member asking for advice about Broadband and dont know how to send him to the archives:lol:

BillE

07-Jan-07, 22:52

Hi,

My question can be seen in the Technical Support forum !

It is not so much about BT Internet (I used to work for them bunch of cowboys!) but about how the phone company BT come around, ruin your line and then do nothing about it.

I see a lot of the old "Line Too Long" rubbish fobbed off by BT in this thread too.

Amazingly my line was "long enough" until BT did some unsolicited vandalism on my line last month. Odd, there have been no earth tremors nor reports of unusual geoligical activity in the area so I assume my line is still "long enough". BT just did something to ruin it and will not accept any responsibility but just pass it to PlusNet who have nothing to do with my local line and are totally useless anyway.

I am glad it is not just me who hates BT.

I have even had emails from Finland for goodness sake who think the way our Broadband works (or doesn't!) in the UK is crazy and belonging to the neolithic era.

It is not as if we are really "remote" there are new houses being built all the time but does BT do anything to increase the number of exchanges to cope with this extra demand - do they heck :-(

Bill.

Foxy

07-Jan-07, 23:40

Don't mention BT in my house.
We decided to give ourselves an early xmas present of broadband, been on dial up for 2 years with wanadoo and had no problems but heard great things about broadband so decided to change and took it through BT.
Ordered broadband, line activated 6th December, set it all up turned it on DSL light flashing on router, tried to sign in, message says something wrong with connection, no Broadband. Phone bt they say try this, try that, nothing happens, went out and bought new broadband cable just in case, still nothing. Complained by E-mail and phone, we'll sort it they say, ha ha. Then get phone call saying it's fixed (not), followed by another one saying the same, still not working.:mad: Then couple of days later they phoned asking was everything fine after engineers visit? What visit?:confused i never saw an engineer. Oops sorry we'll arrange for one to call. Yipee says me tomorrow, no they say in 10 days time. I've been waiting for 4 weeks for broadband to work, but maybe on Wednesday if the engineer comes it will happen!!!! Will let you all know.

Jeemag_USA

08-Jan-07, 00:39

Sorry to hear of everybody's problems, its a shame you don't have cable ehternet up in Caithness, its by far the most reliable service for Fast Ethernet. I am a Telecommunications Engineer and low and behold before moving to the states I worked for BT too :)

Most times it is not going to be a problem with the physical line, unless someone has cut your line or accidentally pulled jumpers from the frame at the exchange, most times its more likely a line card problem or port failure if connected to a switch or router. Sometimes it can be your physical jack on the wall, telephones only use one pair of wires for tip and ring, but for DSL and T1 over here they will use two pairs for sending and receiving, if the engineer who installed your jack punched it down wrong then it may cause a problem. Pretty much the only thing differentiating your phone line from a broadband line is the type of card equipment at the exchange. Your basically just running over a pair of copper wires. Here in the USA there are also rules governing how far away you can be from the exchange before DSL is offered as a Service, repeaters can be installed in mini exchange buildings to boost signal. Every customer has a cable path which is easy for any engineer to follow, and if he is good at his troubleshooting, it shouldn't take too long to find the problem, a good fluke network tester will tell you how many feet away the problem is if it is in the field, especially if the service has been running fine for two years, it sounds more like something serious happened and they are not letting on. Remember also you are entitled to claim monetary compensation from BT for loss of service i think after 3 days.

Alice in Blunderland

08-Jan-07, 01:26

Well I did a house move option with my bt braodband and now its confession time......................they seem to have forgot to charge me for my broadband each month since we moved. Now my dilema is do I phone them and query it or stay stum and wait and see how long I can get a freebie for:roll: mmm oh what a dilema and if I am no longer posting after today you know they have found me out and stopped my broadband. :lol:

Macwull

08-Jan-07, 21:40

Glad this post came back up i was just thinking of changing to BT as im with wanadoo or sorry orange or watever thay are this week! Been having problems with my livebox so phoned tonight and spoke to a UK call centre and the problem has been solved! So maybe i'll just stick where i am, is there any other recommendations of providers??

Orange seems the chepest at only £19.99

BillE

08-Jan-07, 22:55

> Glad this post came back up i was just thinking of
> changing to BT as im with wanadoo or sorry orange or
> watever thay are this week

It does not really matter a jot what Service Provider you are with. Some may have better support and get things arranged better - avoid PlusNet BTW !

The real problem is that whoever you go through we still have that dreadful bottleneck that only BT provide the exchange equipment and lines. When BT screw up, as it seems from this thread that they do frequently, we lose our connection no matter who we are with.

That is the madness of the situation, we are all at the mercy of BT, there is no affordable alternative, all your ISP does is resell the BT Wholesale package which for us in rural areas is crap.

If your line or exchange is lousy or BT do something to ruin a previously working one you are just as stuffed whether you use Tiscalli, BT, PlusNet Zetnet or any other ISP you can think of. Changing Service Provider will not help, though I guess some may be better at supporting you than others even if they do not have any real control over what BT do in the long run.

I would really like to cut BT out of the equation, I have been looking at satellite systems but two way ones are way too expensive, far too much. Maybe not for a pooled effort though.

How about a Caithness Satellite System so we can tell BT exactly where they can shove their pre-historic exchanges :-)

Bill.

BillE

15-Jan-07, 21:25

Wow, I had a bit of excitement today, I saw two of those mythical BT vans sitting up the road.

Had BT finally come to fix the ADSL problem I have since they were blundering around Scarfskerry on the 14th December ?

One person had eventually come from "BT Difficult to Reach" on 11th January only 4 weeks after my Broadband was cut off and all he did was tell me it wasn't working. Four frigging weeks just for that !

Maybe this lot are now here to fix it !!!

No such luck, I was not really too surprised when people from "BT Retail", do we really care what they call themselves, told me they knew nothing of my problem which is now into its fifth week.

BT seem incapable of communicating amonsgst themselves, not very inspiring for a communications company.

I had hoped that by blundering around once more they may repair the damge they caused when first blundering around but no such luck :-(

At least they have a copy of the letter, which I have also sent to both my MP and MSP, to show their management. I doubt if anyone at BT will read it though. Maybe I should have sent one of the BT blokes back with the other's severed head on a pole. That may wake up someone at BT to the fact they have a problem and are not doing a thing to solve it }:-)

Just joking, one of the blokes seemed a fairly decent sort of guy but what do you have to do to get BT management off their butts and do something when they cause a problem to an end user ?

BT are keeping it to themselves but I know now from various sources they replaced some lines very close to me by underground cables on the 14th December and that is when my problem started. My original question as to what BT were up to is answered but not by them !

The old lines are still there, why cannot they just switch back to them even if only to prove that their new underground cable cannot possibly be the problem ? In the meantime I would then be able to get ADSL again for a while. I would even put money on it and I never bet.

I hope someone in a responsible position at BT will read this and explain what the hell they are doing messing around with customers lines and why, why BT are reluctant to mention it, and when you are going to fix it ?

Bill

BillE

15-Jan-07, 21:33

Don't mention BT in my house.

I understand perfectly, some of their actions border on the criminal, passing responsibility to anyone else as soon as they can.

Then couple of days later they phoned asking was everything fine after engineers visit? What visit?:confused i never saw an engineer. Oops sorry we'll arrange for one to call. Yipee says me tomorrow, no they say in 10 days time. I've been waiting for 4 weeks for broadband to work, but maybe on Wednesday if the engineer comes it will happen!!!!

That all seems very familiar, my Broadband chappy said he would report back to my "Service Provider" within 10 minutes of his visit. They have heard nothing since. I should also mention this was the third time BT were supposed to call but they somehow forgot the first two times, and to add insult to injury BT closed my original issue with my ISP without having ever visited or made any attempt to contact me. It was very quickly re-opened by an embarrassed PlusNet whom I know are not the real villains but get blocked by BT every step of the way.

The way BT behave is disgusting.

Will let you all know

Any news or are you still waiting too ?

Bill.

rainbow

15-Jan-07, 21:54

Don't talk to me about broadband! Moved house and am still awaiting my Broadband reconnection. I am with Orange/Wanadoo and they said I would be reconnected today, but BT cancelled the job as they had only used part of my postcode, so it is back to square 1, and I will not be connected to 30 Jan - a wait of 38 working days, when they said the maximum is 15 working days. I have spent about 6 hours on the phone and am at my wits end, most of the time is spent with the orange operator trying to get throught to BT to see when the connection will be done. I am seriously looking at changing from Orange as their Customer Service is ZERO, and the menus at the start of a phone call are top of my list for pet hates.

DarkAngel

15-Jan-07, 22:03

BillE

16-Jan-07, 17:43

I used to be with BT broadband but when i moved house i changed. My mum had AOL and i loved it!

Ive now got AOL and i pay £14.99 per month got a wirelss router and broadband is fast and never had any problems so far!:D

The Service Provider is irrelevant, they all work if that piece of wire BT connetcs to you is OK.

My Broadband worked fine for almost 2 years until the BT vandlas came along and replaced some overhead wires that worked with ADSL by an underground cable which doesn't anymore :-(

ISPs are not the problem, BT is.

I am less than happy ATM as I just returned from work and found that BT have now ensured I cannot even be switched back over to the line that worked.

Bill.

BillE

16-Jan-07, 17:45

************ IMPORTANT UPDATE INFORMATION ******************

I just returned from work, while out it seems BT have been along and REMOVED the overhead cable which connected me to the exchange when my broadband did work.

They have replaced this by an underground cable that isn't working as far as ADSL is concerned, it is now impossible to revert back to the previously working route.

It seems as if I will now NEVER be able to get Broadband as BT are ovbiously not going to do anything to repair their mindless vandalism of my connection and have rendered impossible now to even try going back to the way it was.

Before December the 14th everything was fine. After December 14th when they switched to the underground cable ADSL is no longer possible. BT have degraded my service and now ensured that the new system cannot be reverted back, and they have done this without adequate testing of the effects of their modifications. Not only that they have continued with this work when they know there is an open issue with the line.

How do I sue BT over this ?

How do I claim compensation ?

I will need enough to buy a two way satellite Broadband system seeing BT have effectively denied me using their lines which *used* to work fine.

Someones head at BT need to roll over this matter, they have not been merely incompetant but evasive and dishonest. They did not test whether their new line was funtcioning adequately before switching over to it. They even withheld information that my old line had been replaced by an underground system, even though a problem has been registered with my line since the early hours of the 15th December.
This is not just incompetance but gross negligence.

Bill.

cuddlepop

16-Jan-07, 17:59

Bill,Think we need to start a BT thread.;)
Your local councillor will take this up on your behave and the more people that contact him with their concerns the better.
They may ignore you but they wont ignore a councilor.
BT through their own negligence left us without a connection when they replaced the outside cable.It took them two weeks to eventually admit,accept and correct.[evil]

Oddquine

16-Jan-07, 18:23

Piglet

16-Jan-07, 18:32

Have to agree with you Oddquine.

We are with Plus net & never had a problem with them.

BillE

18-Jan-07, 21:52

avoid PlusNet BTW

Been with plusnet for the last year..and had no problems!

The day after I moved up here, I found there was no phone.

Phoned BT, and had an engineer out the next day.

It turned out a neighbour had damaged the phone line putting in fence posts.....so the engineer phoned for help, and two of them worked, in the pouring rain for most of the day on Hogmanay to get the line joined up and working.

So I'm happy with the service from both.

You have had no problems YET. Just wait until you do.

That is when you will realise the stupid bureaucracy that prevents anything getting done.

PlusNet did their best when you can actually contact them but BT blocked them at every stage. BT even closing issues without even looking into them. BUt PLusNet do not make themselves easy to contact when you do have a problem. I do not really blame PleNet too much as the problem was with my line which in all hinesty has allto do with them but BT insist like a stuck record that we have to "contact our service provider"

My problem was fairly simple to fix when they eventually got around to it today - YIPPEE - but it still took five weeks to the day before anyone even bothered to look at it. And yes, it was them crossing my line when doing other work, something previously denied by BT as being impossible.

Rant over, the guy that fixed it today seemed polite, knew what he was doing and most importantly kept the customer fully informed of what was going on. And more than that he fixed it and [hesitantly and only after me asking] explained exactly what the problem had been.

I must admit that today I have had good service from BT and a person I think is called Chris should be recommended. It is a sad reflection of the way their management operates though that it takes five weeks plus a lot of covering their own butts before they get around to doing anything.

Bill.

Foxy

18-Jan-07, 22:52

Sorry BillE that i haven't posted sooner but been busy.
Well BT didn't show up on wednesday 10th waited all afternoon. Phoned them on Thursday morning the lady says i didn't have an appointment, i have a wee rant so they give me appointment for Friday 12th at 2PM, get phonecall from BT Thursday night saying engineer would definately be there tomorrow (Friday). Friday 1.30pm BT phone asking is broadband working after engineer's visit on wednesday, never saw him wednesday he's coming today(Friday) says I, oh no he's not you don't have an appointment for today (Friday) it was Wednesday he came, at this point i go through the roof not a pretty sight lol. Hope they didn't record that phonecall for training purposes. :lol: When i am finished ranting they give me an appointment for Tuesday 16th and believe it or not an engineer turns up yipee. I had waited 5 weeks for broadband and finally after who knows how many calls it took the engineer 5 hours to sort out the problem. What really put the tin hat on it for me was when my telephone bill arrived from BT while the engineer was here and they had charged me for broadband for the 5 weeks i didn't have it but don't worry i ain't done with them yet. [disgust]

emb123

18-Jan-07, 23:08

I'm assuming you've initiated the complaints procedure ?

Being a structure bound dinosaur, it's necessary to get passed from pillar to post (i.e. go through the formal complaint process) before they notice you.

A relevant section of the BT site is:

http://www.groupbt.com/Societyandenvironment/SocialandEnvironmentReport/section.aspx?sectionid=5b99b27c-1b4a-4f0c-8e03-9df9f9676957
or
http://www.bt.com/customerservices/cust_details.jsp?parentcat=cs_complaint_service&childcat=linkcs_complaint_service_complaint_proced ure

After you've gone through the complaints procedure you can complain to OFCOM. That usually does the trick.

I suppose that if even OFCOM can't get it sorted (although there is no reason I can see why they wouldn't find in your favour) you can even write to your MSP or even the Home Office in Whitehall. Sooner or later BT will get fed up with more and more important people sending them letters inquiring about your problem and they'll fix it. Might take a while though!

Good luck!

BillE

19-Jan-07, 23:15

Well BT didn't show up on wednesday 10th waited all afternoon.

Been there, annoying isn't it.

Mind you yesterday I was taken by surprise in the opposite sense. PlusNet had mentioned that BT could not send anyone around until Monday (22nd January) but I got a call yesterday. It was just as well I had taken the day off anyway.

Hope they didn't record that phonecall for training purposes. :lol:

I have had a few like that too by now, you do tend to start losing patience after five weeks when they keep putting you back to square one.

What really put the tin hat on it for me was when my telephone bill arrived from BT while the engineer was here and they had charged me for broadband for the 5 weeks i didn't have it but don't worry i ain't done with them yet. [disgust]

PlusNet have refunded me a months access, it was 5 weeks but then again they do provide a free dialup number to use while the problem is on the go. It works out about right. Though in all honesty I think it is BT that should provide a refund and a reduction in the line rental charge for that period as it was their line that was faulty.

I dread to see the phone bill when it arrives, I normally hardly make any calls and the ones I do are under 5 minutes. All these calls that BT insist I make to my "service provider" which take 20 minutes or so before anyone picks up the phone at the other end will have rocketed my bill. More profit to BT and all because of their mistake.

At least things are fixed for now - unless BT decide to do some more work and get me cross wired again.

Best of luck with getting your bill sorted out.

Bill.